When culture and style aren't about clothes: perceptions of task-technology "fit" in global virtual teams

ABSTRACT

The rise of the virtual organization in response to global competition and advances in technology has led to the deployment of global virtual teams. Global virtual teams are increasingly commonplace when team members are geographically dispersed and as travel budgets are cut. A global virtual team can be described as a culturally diverse, geographically dispersed, and electronically communicating work group. Virtual teams and the technologies that support them promise the flexibility, responsiveness, lower costs, and improved resource utilization necessary to compete. There is a need for research on how to make virtual teams work effectively when the central medium of the team's process is technology. In this paper, we will explore how cultural tendencies, specifically country-of-origin differences relate to communication styles and how these may influence perceptions of task-technology fit by members of global virtual teams.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Collaborative computing

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
      H.1.2 User/Machine Systems
          Subjects: Human factors
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.3 Communications Applications

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.2 Social Issues

General Terms:
Experimentation, Human Factors, Management, Performance, Theory

Keywords:
communication, communication media, cultural difference, global virtual teams